Tuesday, April 23, 2013

A-to-Z Challenge Day 20 Upsilon (Υ): Where the Way Divides Itself into Two Parts

On the far wall of the room are two identical doorways, each framed by a pair of doric columns and topped with a frieze featuring a menacing face set on a triangle pointed downward. The surface of the plane where each door would be swirls with marbling curls of smoke. These appear to be more than simple doorways and appear, instead, to be portals of some sort.

Against the wall between the portals protrudes a familiar face—that of Kadmos himself (as he appeared at the entrance to the catacombs). After a moment, the face begins to speak...

“For they say that the course of human life resembles the letter Upsilon, because every one of men, when he has reached the threshold of early youth, and has arrived at the place ‘where the way divides itself into two parts,’ is in doubt, and hesitates, and does not know to which side he should rather turn himself.”

“Before you lay two paths. The path on the left leads to the treasure you’ve come seeking. The path on the right leads to the treasure you have not come seeking.”

“Which portal shall you choose?”

The face collapses into the wall and disappears.

The portal on the left will transport those who enter to the Path of Vice. The portal on the right will transport those who enter to the Path of Virtue. Once through the portals, there is no returning to this area, except by the single entrance through which the PCs entered (accessed via the front length of the catacombs).